Finding rare artsy video gems online

Hidden behind the WSJ's stupid paywall is this wonderful piece by Ian Mount about rare, "lost" art-films resurfacing at online video sites like Google and YouTube -- and some ensuing copyright squabbles:

Increasingly, rare and avant-garde films are showing up on sites like these, best known for hosting homemade video spoofs. On YouTube, there are 1969 art videos by Nam June Paik, a 1967 student movie by George Lucas and an iconic 1930 film by Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, as well as a clip of Dalí in a chocolate commercial.

It's the latest reflection of an online culture where fans can function as curators of digital entertainment, bypassing libraries and museums with their own collections of music or movies. In many cases, these rare film clips are posted by amateur film buffs who've scooped up film reels or rare VHS tapes from eBay or local sales, and then digitized them for online viewing. A handful of Web sites and blogs, such as the Greylodge Podcasting Company (www.greylodge.org/gpc), link to the clips, many of which aren't available on DVD.

Greylodge regularly posts links to cool arty stuff on YouTube and elsewhere. Use this link to pull posts from their blog tagged with the post category "link dump," and here's the latest with an insanely long list of wonderful, rare stuff: - Jean Michel Basquiat, Andy Warhol, rare Orson Welles and David Lynch shorts, Charles Manson on the Today Show, Psychic TV, a Sid and Nancy TV interview, the Avengers live at the Mabuhay... wow. Subscribe to their video linkdump RSS feed here.